The present invention relates to a positioning element for positioning advancing food products according the preamble of claim 1. The invention also relates to an apparatus for positioning food products, comprising such a positioning element. The invention finally also relates to a method for positioning food products, according the preamble of claim 13.
The positioning of food products advancing on a conveyor has heretofore usually taken place by means of guide elements which are disposed at a fixed position adjacently of and above the conveyor. The advancing food products, for instance (semi-products of) sausages in particular, which are situated at a location whereby they are forced up against the products placed at a fixed position, will thus be pushed aside by the guide element disposed at a fixed position. Such a solution can be manufactured in very advantageous and robust manner, and also requires little maintenance and is not susceptible to malfunction. A drawback of this existing method of positioning food products advancing on a conveyor is that some of the products for positioning deform under the influence of the guide disposed at a fixed position (sausages can thus for instance be bent). Another drawback is that some of the food products may only be displaced temporarily; as soon as the product is no longer in contact, in a number of cases it may return, to a greater or lesser extent, to the starting position before it was engaged by the guide element disposed in fixed position.
The Japanese patent JP 60-102316 discloses a device of collecting and arranging transferred objects into a single line. The objects are moved by a transporting conveyor and will contact due to there forward movement with right and left guide members which swing in the wide direction of the transporting conveyor. The right and left guide members are moved by means of a power mechanism to arrange the objects gradually into a smaller number of lines. Finally all the objects are arranged into one line at the final outlet and sent into a passage. Due to this construction objects being conveyed in plural lines can be arranged into a single line. However this construction is only applicable for products to be lined in a single row and has furthermore the drawback that is requires substantial space.
The invention therefore has for its object to provide means and a method for positioning advancing food products in plural lines, whereby the above described drawbacks of the prior art can be alleviated or avoided.